IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Matthew Reynolds
Rating: 5/5
Title: Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Matthew Reynolds
Rating: 5/5
You need to read a few other books (preferably Wrox one's) before you get stuck into this, but nevertheless this is a very easy to follow book, and contains some great HTML and ASP tricks to make your e-commerce application more maintainable and scalable. I suggest reading "Beginning Components for ASP" and "Beginning ASP" from Wrox before reading this. What's more it's written by a Brit so it can't be bad (not that I'm biased at all ! ).
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Jakarta-Tomcat
Publisher: Apress
Authors: James Goodwill
Rating: 3/5
Title: Apache Jakarta-Tomcat
Publisher: Apress
Authors: James Goodwill
Rating: 3/5
Good in the sense that it is compact and offers a high-level overview of JSP and Servlets-but not enough examples to allow you to design professional apps. This is not a good book for a detailed description of how to configure Tomcat.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Developing Client/Server Systems Using Sybase SQL Server System 11
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Sanjiv Purba
Rating: 4/5
Title: Developing Client/Server Systems Using Sybase SQL Server System 11
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Sanjiv Purba
Rating: 4/5
I really liked the book. Most of the Sybase books you see are written for DBA's. This is an excellent guide for the everyday programmer. The author does a great job coving stored procedures and triggers. Very easy to understand and informative. I would give this book 4.8 stars. My only knock on the book is the index. It's a little too small. Overall an excellent book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Lex de Haan
Rating: 4/5
Title: Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Lex de Haan
Rating: 4/5
The book presupposes no prior knowledge of Oracle SQL, or indeed of any SQL. de Haan writes for someone willing to study alone from this text, without benefit of the classroom.
Ah, but before I go further, I should add that there is one very attractive feature. The book has a CD with Oracle 10g for Microsoft Windows, and an associated Developer's License. You will need to install it to handle the many exercises he poses. (Another plus of the book.) But one can easily imagine an experienced developer getting the book for the CD alone.
Now if you do need to learn Oracle SQL, de Haan proceeds at a careful pace. He gives you the syntax in understandable chunks; not too much to overwhelm. SQL syntax diagrams can be formidable in their full glory. But piece by piece, you should be able to assimilate the content.
de Haan has also tried to keep to standard SQL syntax, as much as possible. At the level of an expected reader of the book, this is probably best. Oracle specific variants (just like other vendors' variants) tend to arise in more advanced contexts.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE Database Design on SQL Server 7 Exam Prep (Exam: 70-029)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Brad Schulz, Greg Woody, Jose Amado-Blanco, Pam Barker, Christopher Leonard, Christopher A. Leonard, Pamela Barker
Rating: 5/5
Title: MCSE Database Design on SQL Server 7 Exam Prep (Exam: 70-029)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Brad Schulz, Greg Woody, Jose Amado-Blanco, Pam Barker, Christopher Leonard, Christopher A. Leonard, Pamela Barker
Rating: 5/5
This title is excellent for reviewing for the exam only. It covers all the subjects faced on the exam, and nicely hits a few fine points pinpointed on the exam. If you already know database design then this book should be enough for the exam. However, it will not teach a newcomer enough. I used this primarily to narrow down what subjects to review for this particular exam. As other reviewers have stated, the sample questions are easy compared to the final, but the concepts are the same.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in 21 Days (2nd Edition, Book Only)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Richard Waymire, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 1/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in 21 Days (2nd Edition, Book Only)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Richard Waymire, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 1/5
This is a fantastic book for people who need a crash course in SQL Server 2K. The information is presented in a style that gives the reader the "bottom line" on how to perform a task, with enough information to explain what the reader is doing and why.The book is also well-written, so if the reader is learning SQL Server on one's own, the reader should struggle very little.This book also comes with a 120-day evaluation of SQL Server 2000, so the reader can easily perform the hands-on exercises in the book, as well as experiment on one's own.Will this book make you a maven of SQL Server 2K? No, but this book will give you the information that you need to be a SQL Server Database Administrator.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCDBA Administering SQL Server 2000 Study Guide (Exam 70-228)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Joyjit Mukherjee
Rating: 2/5
Title: MCDBA Administering SQL Server 2000 Study Guide (Exam 70-228)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Joyjit Mukherjee
Rating: 2/5
When using a Study/Exam Guide to prep for a certification exam, I expect the exam portion of the guide to be a key point. The CertTrainer ExamSim included with this book is a joke. I like to begin my preparation by taking the practice exam before I read the text to see where I need to concentrate. After 90 minutes or so, I reached the end of the exam, pressed Back to check my previous answer, only to find my answer had changed. Upon checking other answers, they ALL had changed to A&B! I retook the exam, and when I went into review mode, none of my anwsers showed up at all, and neither did any text to explain what the correct answer should be. It just started the exam process over.I have to wonder if anyone at the publisher actually tries to read/use any of the books they publish. With the technical nature of these books, it is imperative that they be acurate and usable.This is the second 70-228 book I've shelled out a substantial amount of money for (the 1st one being the "All-In-One" abomination), and I'm starting to get gun shy.These books don't come cheap in either cost or the time it takes to read and study them, and the publishers have an obligation to make them credible. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of choices out there, and finding the good ones is getting harder and harder.I just hope the publishers realize that as we become certified professionals, our recomendations are taken seriously.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Server 2.0: A Beginner's Guide
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Katherine Wrightson, Kate Wrightson
Rating: 3/5
Title: Apache Server 2.0: A Beginner's Guide
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Katherine Wrightson, Kate Wrightson
Rating: 3/5
A well organized, well written book that teaches you most of what you need to know to run Apache binaries on a wide range of operating systems, (but mostly on UNIX). It deals with basic and intermediate features of customization of apache. Not much advanced stuff in there.
For you serious developers and system administrators looking for a book to teach you how to create a very versatile and personalized version of apache that will suite your needs, this is not the book for you. Get a book that is OS specific, like the "Linux Apache Web Server Administration" of the Craig Hunt Linux Library.
For those of you who have not many demands of their Apache environment this book is more than enough and would give you a great start and introduction into the wonderful world of Apache...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Pocket Ref
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Andrew Ford
Rating: 5/5
Title: Apache Pocket Ref
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Andrew Ford
Rating: 5/5
I, incredulously, bought this book not expecting to refer to it because I know everything ( ;-P ). I have found that it a most invaluable resource. If you know (and love) Apache, this is the synopsis you need sitting on the left hand side of your keyboard.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 (with CD-ROM)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Tobias Ratschiller, Till Gerken
Rating: 4/5
Title: Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 (with CD-ROM)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Tobias Ratschiller, Till Gerken
Rating: 4/5
I had such high hopes after I'd picked up David Beazley's excellent Python reference in the same series. Unfortunately, the writing is just awful and apparently unedited.There's no cohesion, no real goals apparent in the prose. The first chapter is a rambling discussion of why you should use good descriptive variable names.Later on, personal anecdotes about the history of the web world dot the pages, as if they added something. Editors! Editors! We need more editors! See also "Professional PHP Programming" for another book badly in need of an editor.
